San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Puerto Rican salsa legend Jose Luis "Cheo" Feliciano, a giant of the genre, died in a car crash early Thursday morning in San Juan, police said. He was 78. A crooner with one of the most recognizable and imitated voices in Latin music, Feliciano sang with the long-running Fania All Stars in the heyday of New York's thriving salsa scene in the 1970s. "Cheo was one of the most important stalwarts and forces of our music," said Juan Moreno Velazquez, a New York-based journalist who has written biographies of salsa's biggest stars. "He will be mourned in Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America. He connected to the people, a true stalwart of our culture for all Latinos. The passing of this icon leaves immense pain throughout Latin America."

"His music embodied the rhythm of

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